I got Long COVID 1,5 years ago. After 12 months searching for solutions, I got in contact with Norway's top clinician for ME/CFS/Long COVID, Marianne Svanevik, by chance.
That was the start of my recovery journey.
Here's a summary of her approach to treating Long COVID:
1. Rest:
Find the activity level you can manage without crashing/having your Long COVID symptoms increase. When 14 days has passed without having crashed/symptom increases, you have stabilized the situation and are ready to rebuild your body.
2. Rebuild:
Gradually increase your activity level by around 10% every two weeks. If you crash/have symptom increases, you have done too much. Reduce your activity back to the previous level until you have had two weeks without crashes/symptom increases, then increase again, this time with half the increase as last time.
This is what I've been doing this year. Marianne has described her method in more detail here if you are interested: https://www.covidrecovery.co/long-covid
It took me time to understand how low my activity level had to be for me to get rid of the crashes/symptom increases. I did too much at the start of Marianne's program and didn't get better for the first number of weeks. Once I found the right activity level for me, most of my symptoms faded away and crashing became rarer - it was amazing.
I'm currently in the later stages of step 2 rebuilding my body step-by-step (there is a step 3 too but that's not relevant for this post). Progress is slow but steady. Sometimes nothing gets better in a couple of months and then, BOOM! a big upgrade happens - like with ketchup.
I'm not 100% yet, but compared to a year ago life is much, much better.
Finally, I also have something meaningful to do. When I feel up for it, I am helping Marianne get her method out into the world. So many people are struggling and are not getting effective help so it feels great to contribute.
I wish I'd heard about Marianne as soon as I got sick, not a year later! Hoping to be back to 100% in not too long! 🙂
Bjarte
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